thoughts on my retouching

this is not an official official work sort of thing so I didn't put it in the critique section. So what do you guy's think? It's my fourth time retouching a photo like this, I'm normally into digital painting but decided to do something different for a change... sorry for the incredibly bad quality and size of the pic.. 100KB limit retouchlittle.jpg

If you're new to retouching, I recommend doing lots and lots of tutorials. =] There are some good ones on here and a Google search brings thousands of results.

What I would do if I were you is just focus on retouching. It seems you did a lot of noticeable liquefying and color/contrast editing. Don't get me wrong, it is a big part of retouching but when I started learning the trade sayy 7 years ago (ha, I'm old) it helped me to start small repeatedly before I went big (if that makes sense).

Less is definitely more in this world. Sorry I wasn't very detailed, I can be if you want =] And I'm sure someone else will be too.

Image 1 is a definite improvement (love the fixed expression!), though her right calf in the After example seems lumpy.

Photo 2 (the close-up): Try putting some color back into her lips. They're almost lost in the paleness of her face. Also, the jaggy haircut over her left eye needs to be fixed (not your fault; maybe she goes to a beauty school-!).